On a friday after school, as Strengthen is on his way home with Negate following him asking for a fight, some kids end up knocking into Negate and falling, as they look up and see Negate's face they begin to cry, asking him not to hurt them.

After calming them down, Strengthen asks what's happening, and they explain that the local park was taken over by a group of thugs with metal bats, and when the police tried to do something about it they were knocked out quickly. The kids ran away, but seeing Negate's face made them think that he was just another one of the thugs from the park.

Angry that he was getting a bad reputation because of these random thugs, Negate decides to go and deal with them himself. Strengthen follows him due to being curious on how they ended up defeating the police, thinking that they probably have some sort of power like him and Negate.

Upon getting to the park, they see a group of 5 teenagers, seemingly younger than them, wearing american football armor and holding metal bats. Amidst them, in the dead center of the park, is a boy, looking to be around 14, sitting on a throne made out of cardboard.

Seeing that they are just kids, Negate walks up to them and begins blabbering on about how they're making him look bad, and how they shouldn't be doing this, even though he would absolutely be down to join them if it wasn't for Strengthen being there.

One of the kids swings his baseball bat at Negate, however he doesn't take any damage due to his ability. Negate retaliates with a light punch to the kid's chest as a warning, but although knocked back, the kid didn't seem to be even the slightest bit hurt, with Negate's hand being the one to take damage.

The rest of the kids try to jump Negate together, but he keeps negating their hits and striking them back, neither actually taking real damage from this. Eventually Negate gets angry to the point where he actually punches one of the kids in the face, finally doing damage to one of them. The kid who was hit immediately runs away. Seeing this, Strengthen finally decides to approach and enter the fight, saying:

"I don't quite understand what power this is yet, but it looks like their armor is way stronger than the average kind they wear in American football. Looking at the damage they're doing to the environment when they miss you with their bats, I'm guessing their bats are stronger too."

Negate scoffs at this, boasting about how he's invincible with his power, so it doesn't matter how strong their baseball bats are. He is promptly reminded by Strengthen that he lost to him, so he shuts up quickly.

When he is charged at by one of the kids, Strengthen does a Judo throw, throwing the kid who charged at him at another who was attacking Negate. Of course Negate complains about not needing Strengthen's help, but nonetheless he uses the opportunity to take away the bat from both the kids who were knocked down, with them running away shortly after due to not having their weapons anymore.

With only 2 kids left, instead of putting up a fight, they just run away, afraid that they can't win without the numbers advantage anymore. With all of his lackeys gone, the kid sitting in the throne in the middle, who looked no older than 14, stands up. He's wearing a leather jacket, and sports a pompadour hairstyle reminiscent of how 90s gangsters look like on TV. He begins to speak:

"Looks like my buncha useless mutts that I call lackeys gon' and started actin' like full blown chickens! Don'tcha dare an' think I'm gonna let ya two losers dismantle my empire now that I gots all this power!"

Both Strengthen and Negate stand in awe.

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"I mean, look, we- I mean, I even gon' and defeated that popo over there that tried to stop us!"

He points at a knocked out guy wearing a police-like outfit, clearly a fake costume made for partying.

"So if y'all think you can defeat me, ya better think again!"

Strengthen looks at Negate with a look as if saying "He does indeed sound like you.", before being told to shut up, not even having said anything yet.

The both of them dash at the boy, but just before they can hit him, he hides behind his cardboard throne. Strengthen stops moving forwards, but Negate tries to bulldoze through the cardboard, only to be completely stopped in his tracks, as the cardboard doesn't move at all. The kid laughs at him and scurries even further, while Strengthen stands still, having made a realization.

When they catch up to the kid they reach a small hut, or perhaps a shack would be a better way to describe it, made completely out of wood. It's really small and clearly fragile, but firmly planted on the ground. The kid closes the door and starts laughing, bragging about how he's invincible in his indestructible fortress. Strengthen yet again looks at Negate as if that's something that he'd say, but he's ignored this time.

Negate is on his way to charging into the house to break the door, but is stopped by strengthen, who explains:

"I understand now what his power is. He can fortify whatever object he wants, making them way more resistant to change, at least externally. That's why whenever you hit those kid's armor, all the damage was able to be absorbed by the armor, and why you couldn't break the chair made out of cardboard"

Yelling is heard from inside the shack—

"It's a throne!"

Strengthen sighs, but Negate is confused. He says:

"Ain't that the same as your power, though?"

"No? My power is to strengthen."

"So just...Strengthen something enough to make it be able to break his shack."

"That's not... How this power works."

"Why not?"

"I can only strengthen my own body."

"If yer power is strengthen, then you can strengthen anything you want."

"It's only really strengthening if it's done to myself."

"What about when we strengthen houses an' stuff with concrete?"

"I guess... That would be another way to apply the word, yes..."

Now convinced to try and use his power externally, he picks up one of the already fortified baseball bats and tries to use strengthen on it. Visually, the bat didn't change, but when he tested it on the ground, the pavement easily broke, creating a huge crack on the ground.

Surprised it actually worked, Strengthen uses the strengthened and fortified bat to attack the shack, who promptly breaks, revealing Fortify inside. Seeing that his unbreakable fort was actually broken, and looking up at Strengthen holding this seemingly invincible baseball bat, Fortify is reminded of a predator seeking his prey, and is terrified by it.

Before Fortify is able to plead not to be hurt, Strengthen throws the bat away, and extends his hand to him, surprising both Fortify and Negate.

"The hell? Yer just gonna let him get off the hook that easy?"

"He's just a kid, all of us that have powers like this should band together."

"Tch, you're just too damn soft."

Fortify grabs his hand and gets up, seeing Strengthen in a new light. He promises not to do this again, and says that he will apologize to everyone he's hurt, which was actually just one person, the guy dressed as a police officer. Strengthen warns him not to tell anyone about his power just in case of anything happening, and walks away.

Later that same day, someone knocks on Strengthen's door. Upon opening it he sees Fortify.

"Hey, remember me? Can you teach me how you did that throw from before? It was so cool!"

Explode, overhearing the conversation, laughs. Seems like this kid will be sticking around for a while.

Back in the 'indestructible' shack, a well dressed man picks up the bat Strengthen threw away.

"So that's all it takes to make your power stronger? Heh, I can work with this."